ShareChat is this year’s 9th unicorn as it raises over $500 million from Tiger Global, Snap and Twitter

• With the latest investment, the startup’s valuation has gone up to $2.1 billion.
• Earlier, there were talks that Google would also be betting on the social media platform.
• Sharechat’s new funding will be used for its short video platform Moj, which it had launched in July last year right after TikTok’s ban in India.

Indian social media platform ShareChat has raised $502 million from Tiger Global Management and LightSpeed Ventures, while Snap Inc, Twitter and India Quotient, too, participated in the round. With the latest investment, the startup’s valuation has gone up to $2.1 billion.

The investment makes ShareChat the fifth Indian tech-startup to be valued by investors at a billion dollars this week and the 9th unicorn of 2021.

The regional language social media platform’s new funding round will be used for its short video platform Moj, which it had launched in July last year, right after Chinese short video app TikTok’s ban in India. Currently, ShareChat claims to have over 160 million monthly users while Moj claims to have 120 million monthly active users.

“Moj is well-positioned to seize the opportunity presented by the growth of short video in India. We are impressed with the team’s understanding of these rapidly evolving technologies and its ability to execute quickly, and we are excited to partner with them as they continue to build a great company,” said Scott Shleifer, partner at Tiger Global in a statement.

The funding comes into the parent company of ShareChat and Moj – Mohalla Tech. The company has now raised a total of $766 million in funding.

Earlier, there were talks that Google would also be betting on the social media platform.

“With this infusion of capital we would continue to aggressively grow our user base, build a world-class organisation in India and the US and further strengthen our creator community, artificial intelligence-powered recommendation engine and platform health,” said Ankush Sachdeva, chief executive officer and co-founder of ShareChat in a statement.

The Indian social media platform ShareChat has built a strong base for itself in the country. As a conscious decision, ShareChat isn’t going after the first adopters of the internet in India – the English-speaking audience which consumes content similar to the West. Sharechat has a presence in over 15 Indian languages.

ShareChat’s Moj has competition from the likes of DailyHunt’s Josh, MX Player, Chingari among others.

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